Tough Cases Not New To Trader Judge

May 14, 1990|By John Gorman.

In November 1987, former Gov. Dan Walker stood before U.S. District Court Judge Ann C. Williams a convicted felon and a broken man.

A flushed and forlorn Walker listened as Assistant U.S. Atty. Thomas Durkin asked that the former governor be sentenced to a long prison term for fraudulently obtaining $1.4 million in bank loans. Walker`s attorney, Thomas Foran, asked for probation.

Williams lashed out at the former governor for using First American Savings and Loan Association, the Oak Brook thrift where he was chairman, as

``a personal piggy bank.``

Imposing a seven-year sentence, Williams said the former governor had

``placed himself above the law`` and asserted that his ``fall from grace, loss of stature, embarrassment and humiliation`` were of his own making.

When Williams sent Walker to prison, she had been on the bench for 2 1/2 years.

The stiff sentence shocked some in the Dirksen Federal Building, where Williams is presiding over the trial of three traders from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange accused of cheating customers in the Swiss franc pit.

Williams cut her legal teeth in the building as a law clerk for the late appellate court Judge Robert Sprecher before joining the U.S. attorney`s office in 1976 after being recommended by Anton Valukas, then first assistant U.S. attorney.

``I left the office soon after interviewing Ann, then watched with distinct pleasure as her career blossomed,`` said Valukas, who returned to the Dirksen building to be U.S. attorney from 1985 to late 1989. ``She enjoys an outstanding reputation as a judge, on both civil and criminal cases.``

Then-U.S. Atty. Dan Webb named Williams in 1983 to head the organized crime drug enforcement task force, which was formed to derail the burgeoning drug trafficking in northern Illinois. She remained in that position until her appointment to the federal bench in June 1985.

The Walker sentence, coupled with her prosecutorial background, established her reputation among some defense attorneys as a tough sentencing judge.

Her defenders, however, are quick to point to the compassionate side of Williams, noting that 17 1/2 months after she sent Walker to prison, she commuted his sentence to time served after hearing attorney Foran report that Walker was in poor health and had been a model prisoner.

As one of the first women judges on the federal bench, her mettle was tested initially by some lawyers, court observers recall. The lawyers were soon brought up short.

``Judge Williams does not have the reputation as someone you can bamboozle,`` said Judge William Bauer, who as chief judge of the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reviews Williams` work and has known her for more than a decade. ``Attorneys have long since stopped testing Judge Williams.``

In five years on the bench, Williams has developed a reputation as a no-nonsense judge who has little tolerance for public corruption, heinous crimes, courtroom histrionics or poorly prepared lawyers.

Even lawyers who have been on the losing side before Williams respect the judge.

``She`s a stern but evenhanded, no-nonsense and self-assured judge who moves her cases expeditiously through the system,`` observed prominent defense attorney Terence Gillespie. ``Off the bench, she is very courteous to both sides, even charming.``

Gillespie represented former Chicago police officer Thomas York last year in his second trial before Williams. York had been convicted in 1987 of insurance fraud in connection with the arson death of his business partner. When she sentenced York, Williams told him she regretted she could only sentence him to the maximum of 30 years.

Later, the appellate court reversed York`s conviction on a legal point and granted a new trial. After York was again found guilty, with an additional charge of obstruction of justice, Williams sentenced him to the maximum of 40 years in prison.

In perhaps the largest multiple-defendant trial before Williams, former Ald. Perry Hutchinson (9th) was convicted in an insurance fraud scheme.

In sentencing Hutchinson, Williams said, ``Mr. Hutchinson, you have led a life where people have loved and trusted you. Unfortunately, you became intricately involved in this scheme. I am sentencing you as someone who has abused the industry and the system.``

Broker Robert Mosky and traders David Zatz and Danny Scheck have fewer worries about a stiff sentence than did Walker, York and Hutchinson, because of a law that went into effect for crimes committed after November 1987, a year before the alleged Swiss franc scheme began.

The new guidelines limit the discretion that judges have in sentencing. The guidelines take into account such considerations as remorse, prior convictions and the money involved.

The trial of the traders is supposed to take six weeks, and courtroom observers predict that Williams will keep to that timetable.